Chapter 62

On my next day off, I asked Tototo-senpai again to let me ride in the Tensho-go.
Our destination, needless to say, was Fantland.

“Paperwork-wise, it’s already decided that you aren’t giving up your rights as Baron, so is there really a need to go all the way out there?” Tototo-senpai asked curiously while driving.

“On paper, that’s true, but I felt like the right thing to do was to explain it to the local people in person.”

“You really are diligent about these things, Master.”

“Diligent might be an understatement,” the others added.

I couldn’t really fire back at my family’s comments. I know I have that side to me. Back at the magic school, while everyone else was busy copying the experimental results straight out of the textbook, I was the one stubbornly repeating the actual experiments.

“There’s no way the results will be different, so just write down the data for a successful run. You won’t survive in the working world if you’re this inefficient,” a classmate once told me. I think they were right in their own way.

If you try to do everything perfectly and end up dying from overwork, you’ve defeated the purpose.

But this is just my personality; I can’t help it.

“Plus, I want to check on that liquor called Doburon. It’s still an unknown variable whether it can actually become a viable product…”

“Ooh, we get to drink that stuff! My excitement is peaking! If it becomes a product, I’ll buy it every day!”

Tototo-senpai drove on with high spirits.

“Senpai, you always drink too much. You should be careful… buying it every day is overkill…”

Actually, Farphistanya-senpai was riding with us this time too. According to her, “I’m a shut-in by nature, so I felt like going on a trip.” There aren’t really any tourist spots in Fantland, though.

“I’m being careful lately, you know! In the past, I used to do wild stuff like drinking my entire salary on payday.”

Farphistanya-senpai trembled.

“Terrifying… In a way, that’s scarier than ‘True Scary Stories of Black Magic’…”

“True… losing your whole salary on the first day, I wouldn’t even know what to do…”

“I learned the backroads this time, so we’ll get there faster than before. I researched the shortest route thoroughly!”

Senpai wasn’t lying; we arrived nearly an hour earlier than last time. It’s a pace that makes a day trip possible, but we’re staying overnight. We did go through the trouble of cleaning up the building, after all.

After parking the Tensho-go, I headed straight for the settlement.

Regardless of the form it took, I wanted to bring proper closure to the situation. Since the majority had originally been in favor of the shopping mall, I thought I might be unwelcome.

I went to the village chief’s house and called out at the door.

“Excuse me! It’s Franz, the Baron of this place!”

After a moment, a woman who looked like the chief’s wife opened the door.

“Oh my, if it isn’t the Lord. Thank you for making the long trip!”

Just then, the scent of alcohol wafted from inside.

“Right now, we’re in the middle of brewing Doburon at the workshop behind the house. Would you like a sample?”

Behind me, Tototo-senpai was saying, “I’ll drink as much as you’ve got!” Please keep it within the bounds of common sense.

Still, while that interested me, I was more concerned about Fantland’s reaction.

“Um… regarding the matter of inviting the commercial facility, do the people understand the situation?”

“Oh, that? My husband explained it all. Besides, the company that was pushing for the facility was arrested for making illegal deals with county officials.”

“What!?”

So that company is finished…

“Apparently, their ‘completed vision’ diagrams were based on falsified data. If we had actually built it, it would have been a disaster. Right now, we’re working on a small scale to increase Doburon production.”

Then, I spotted a familiar face carrying something in the back.

It was Ho-wa-ho-wa, whom I had met before!

There were other young-looking Marsh Trolls carrying tubs of water. Perhaps Marsh Trolls are naturally strong, as they carried the large tubs with ease.

“Ah, we’re asking the Marsh Troll children to help us out right now. They said they needed money to buy new clothes, so it worked out perfectly.”

It seemed that integration between the Marsh Trolls and the other residents was actually progressing. Perhaps the tiny population size worked in our favor. With only twenty-one residents, reaching a consensus takes about a hundredth of the effort compared to a land where two thousand people live.

Ho-wa-ho-wa glanced over here and seemed to smile, but since we didn’t exchange words, it might have just been my imagination.

Afterward, I observed the Doburon making, but it seemed production volume was indeed the bottleneck.

But we can’t exactly scale it up too drastically…

Quietly, Farphistanya-senpai placed a cloth over one of the storage barrels.

“Phew, that should do it.”

“Wait a minute. What did you just do?”

“I covered it with a cloth inscribed with a magic circle that promotes fermentation to make it finish faster.”

If she can really do that, it’s amazing, but…

“Hahaha. This stuff has to be aged slowly. It won’t happen that fast—”

The wife laughed while taking a sip from a cup to test it.

“—It’s… perfectly finished…”

As expected of Farphistanya-senpai!

“With this, we might be able to seriously consider mass production…”

I should bring Farphistanya-senpai along whenever something happens from now on. There might be some kind of “chemical reaction.” Though it feels a bit weird for a mage to be talking about chemical reactions.

That night turned into another banquet. Incidentally, it was on a much larger scale than before.

Farphistanya-senpai was being enshrined as a legend. The village chief, in particular, was bowing his head and asking her to make more cloths.

Tototo-senpai looked like she was about to start stripping in her drunken excitement, so I stopped her. Please, spare me.

During the banquet, the village chief and several residents approached me with serious expressions. Some had red faces from the drink, though.

“Thank you for everything. If we had ridden the momentum of the commercial facility plan, it would have become irreversible. With Doburon, even if we hit a dead end, we can always look for another path.”

So the chief said.

“I only did what I thought was right.”

“Stopping allowed us to look back and appreciate the virtues of this land.”

Finally, they all said in unison, “Thank you very much, My Lord!”

It was a bit of an embarrassing experience, but it didn’t feel bad.

“Franz’s decision turned out well, didn’t it?”

Mary was calmly sipping her drink.

“Yeah. Though it might have been a lucky punch. I didn’t know for sure if it would succeed.”

“If you only did things where success was guaranteed, you’d never get anywhere.”

I thought she had a point as I got a little tipsy myself.

But I couldn’t get completely hammered. There was one more place I wanted to go.

After everyone had fallen asleep at my villa(?), I headed out toward the marsh.

I wanted to see Ho-wa-ho-wa properly.

“Gau-gau!”

This time, I was grabbed from behind.

“Ho-wa-ho-wa?”

“Franz, you saved us. Thanks, gau-gau.”

I’m really glad if it turned out to be a plus for the Marsh Trolls too.

“I’m going to keep protecting the Marsh Trolls from now on. Even if you don’t pay taxes, that’s just how I do things.”

Then, Ho-wa-ho-wa moved around to face me.

And then—

“Reciprocation. Gau-gau.”

I received a kiss on the lips.

“A-Ah, thanks…”

The Marsh Troll’s sign of gratitude was warm.

“Next time you come, I’ll do something even better. Gau-gau. And the time after that, even more. Gau-gau.”

“No, you don’t need to keep upping the levels!?”

The trouble surrounding the land of Fantland has seemingly settled for now.

I’ll have to think more about sales channels for Doburon. I wonder if President Kel-kel can introduce me to someone?

By the way, while I was thinking about those things, Ho-wa-ho-wa was clinging tightly to me…

If I had a younger sister I’d left behind in the countryside, I wonder if it would feel like this…

Lick, lick.

“Whoa, Ho-wa-ho-wa, you don’t need to lick my face!”

“This is also reciprocation. Gau-gau. Young girls do this, men happy.”

She’s not wrong, but I feel like there are many things wrong with this…

“W-Well… I guess this much is fine. Do as you like…”

And so, I ended up being licked for quite a long time. I felt like a cub being licked by its parent animal…